The deepest blue
by Lamb's Ear
Summary: In a moment of respite Marko tries his hand at magic with Alana


He watched his wife sleep and was surprised by how much it intrigued him.

Never before had Alana slept so soundly. Deep, steady breaths billowed gently from her mouth further signaling her relaxation.

Ever since they had recklessly fallen in love, Alana and he had been on the run but with this new ship and their child under the continual watchful eye of his mother, his beautiful bride had finally been able to lower her guard enough to rest.

Marko knew the restless agitation she suffered from personally. After a time spent fighting in a war and witnessing nameless, agonized faces fall to the ground it had changed him along with his ability to relax.

He had been good so at causing pain and suffering and was still quite proficient in killing but that very fact was why he abhorred violence. How could one ever be at peace after countless people for a cause that was not his own? So many fathers, brothers and son that he kept from coming home just because he had adopted this slaughter as his own vendetta. Did his lost family and friends really equate to the tens of hundreds he had personally taken out?

Once he was in the war it had become so hard to kept his perspective, to have mercy on those that were other. All Marko had to do was sink within himself let loose the bloodlust within him but even lust after a while is quench and you're left with what's the underlying feeling behind it. For Marko it had always been a sense of outrage but he had yet as a young man to stop access what was its point of origin. He had been unable to settle his spirit between the peace that he wanted and the white hot judicial anger that came to him so naturally and with that came regrets.

As a child his father had tried to raise him as any buck would but his family noticed his rash use of strength which was starkly juxtaposed with his kindness towards the weak. There had been one particular instance with the neighbor girl who he punished for hurting his dog and how he let his rage get the better of him. His father cried even before the tears welled up into his own eyes as Barr took his belt against his son's bare back.

He remembered his father's stern words before the first lash was laid. They haunted him from the way his father had delivered them in an usually anguished voice.

" Do not go beyond yourself protecting others that you become someone others need protecting from. Do not lose your innocence because that is when you truly lose your life, Marko."

As beautiful as his language was, its alliance was to no one and like fire needed to be handled with respect. As his father spoke the words Marko felt the magic they held bind and infuse him like a curse, that with every bloody rage out on the front he lost a little more purity and as a result himself to the hold of blue magic.

Wreathers had a phrase that was common but unappreciated in these tumultuous days to "think of your words as carefully as you hold dear your life" because a sentence spoken out of turn could change your life as fast as your breath could carry air.

Barr would have never phrased it as such if he knew the pain that it would eventually inflict upon his son when he became a soldier but you can not unspeak blue no more than you could bring back life. There were just some concepts one encountered in life that went beyond words, even as some as fine as blue because after all language is just verbal symbolism and could never hold the true value of the actual object, magic or not.

Imprisonment on Landfall had actually relieved him, in a perverse sort of fashion. There he could not kill, the guards and their rifles held him and the war he fought at bay but finding Alana had given him a new, deeper sense of peace.

Not that her love had be peaceful, no it had been always quite the opposite. To protect herself from feeling guilty and hopeless she sought to shut out both his altruism and his heart but a book and translation rings had undone all the barriers she wove between them.

When they first kissed he could read her as clearly as his name. Alana, passionate and fierce but insecure and a belief in lust not love. Marko had worked on the latter but with only minimal success until he stayed with her after he learned of her pregnancy. Alana saw for herself that to Marko she was more than a pretty face. To him she was easy to talk to and someone for whom he did not want to live without.

So slowly and surely she relaxed; and as her belly swelled so did her trust and subsequently her love for the ram.

He reached out across the bed and ran his fingers through the long dark strands of hair along the crown of her head and swallowed down the lump growing in his throat. Alana shifted, taking a long breath with her lax mouth open and revealed her bare torso from underneath the sheets. Her verdant lashes fanned out in a dark crescent above the sharp edge of her cheekbones.

Marko's ears flicked along the furrowed ridge of his horns' curve as he leaned down to lay beside her. He did not have the foolish wish of longing for life to be fair but when he looked at her asleep like this that he could caress her without her startling awake and ready to defend herself he hope that one day life could be easier. For the evils they did, they did not deserve it but for Hazel...did she have to be burdened by the sins of her father?

Alana rolled once more, seeking out his warm as she snuggled up beside him, molding her chest against his and butting her head underneath his chin. As her leg came up to hook around his hip, her left wing which was free of the bed unfurled in a slow, taunt stretch.

Marko watched in wonder as it reached its gossamer webbing towards the ceiling before hanging limply in the air. Curious, Marko blew into iridescent skin and watched in fascination as the air caught and the wing reflexively pushed against it as if climbing through the skies.

He tilted his head, careful to not knock Alana's head with his horn and looked down at her still sleeping face. Her lips were closer now, the plush cushion of them barely hemmed together as he felt her breath brush against his shoulder.

" _Little dragon, winged warrior_." he said fondly, in the melodic sounds of blue. " _You will always know that you are loved, that I treasure you more than myself and protect you with my life. You have restored my innocence and…_ "

He stopped weaving the words as he choked up on the emotion behind them. He wanted to bind her to himself but as he thought of her, his family and how tenuously their lives hung he had to pause the magic to swallow down the bitter bile boiling up. " _...and I...Alana...I…_ "

He closed his eyes and fought the swelling ache in his chest when he felt Alana's fingers ghosting up his neck before coming to rest along his jaw. " What are you going on about?" she mumbled sleepily. Her bright eyes were shadowed into a dark whiskey color as she held them half open.

He took a ragged sigh as she rose and tilted to met his mouth in a uncoordinated but hungry kiss. He hummed against her lips and deepened the kiss, happy to distract himself with something lighter than his earlier musings. One hand meshed against the downy bristles of her undercut and pressed her firmly against his lips while the other slipped down her waist to hold onto her hip. " _Alana_ …"

She smiled against his mouth as he murmured her name and broke the kiss. " I love it when you say my name like that. Never thought I'd say that hearing blue now turns me on instead of terrifying me."

His eyes grew smaller as he smiled back at her, cupping her backside. " Only when I speak it I hope?"

She huffed and rolled her eyes at his attempted tease. He knew she secretly liked his dry humor, that she found it more endearing that he tried so much and barely succeeded.

Unlike Ginny, who only saw a friendly face and a doting father, Alana knew him. Of course there was still so much that he had yet to tell her or gained courage to admit to but she knew him intrinsically as no other had cared to. Gwen had fallen for 18 year old him and sought to win that teenage love back by ending the current him while others were drawn to his virile prowess when they weren't terrified by his black soul but Alana…

She was the other half to his coin, up when his was down and there pulling him out of that dank mire towards the peace they only found in each other's company.

" I love you." she whispered, pressing her thin hand against his chest.

He placed his hand on top of hers and bowed his head. " I love you too."

She chuckled with a scoff though he knew his words touched her. She curled her fingers against the hair trailing down his chest and gently bit her lip. " I know you do...you always will."

It was then he knew his spell had been cast and set.

A/N: Thank you to Dimplz for her betawork and my other beta who wishes to remain unnamed LOL :) my birthday present to myself though I'm posting it late


End file.
